GURBACHAN SINGH TALIB (1911-1986)

Gurbachan Singh
Talib was a scholar, author and teacher,
famous for his command of the English language. He was master equally
of the written as well as of the spoken word. He was born in a small
town, Munak, in the present Sangrur district, on 7 April 1911, tht
son of Sardar Kartar Singh and Mata Jai Kaur. His father was an
employee of the princely state of Sangrur. He passed his matriculation
examination from the Raj High School, Sangrur, in 1927, securing
a merit scholarship, and went up to the Khalsa College, Amritsar,
where he received his Master's degree in English literature in 1933,
topping the Panjab University. Soon after receiving his Master's
degree he became a lecturer in his own college, starting a very
spectacular scholastic career. His first class first in the
M.A. examination was an unprecedented event in the annals of
the University for never before had the distinction been claimed
by a mofussil college. This halo won him the instant esteem of his
colleagues and pupils. He took to the academic groove like fish
to water. Much mythology accrued to his name. Soon he became
a legendary figure in the college. Many stories became current
about his exceptional diligence, his spontaneity in
the English language and the diversity of his scholarship.

He
left the Khalsa College in 1940 to join the newly
started Sikh National College at Lahore where he served in the
Department of English as a lecturer for several years. From
1949 to 1962 he worked as principal, successively,
at Lyallpur Khalsa College,Jalandhar, Sri Guru Tegh Bahadur
Khalsa College, Delhi, Khalsa College, Bombay, Guru Gobind
Singh College Patna, and National College, Sirsa. He was Reader in
English at Kurukshetra University from 1962 to 1969, and
Professor of Sikh Studies in the Guru Nanak Chair Panjab University,
Chandlgarh, from 1969 to 1973. In 1973, he translated himself
to the Punjabi University, Patiala, where he began the most
productive years of his career. He took over at Banaras
Hindu University the Guru Nanak Chair of Sikh Studies, but
had to leave soon for reasons of health. Back at Patiala,
he was made a fellow of the Punjabi University in 1976 and
he launched upon the stupendous project of rendering the
entire Guru Granth Sahib into English. In 1985, he
received the Government of India award Padma
Bhushan. He resigned the Punjahi University fellowship in
1985 to take up the National fellowship offered hy the Indian
Council of Historical Research, New Delhi. He suffered a massive
heart attack in July 1976 which he survived; the
second one on the morning of 9 April 1986 however proved fatal.

Professor
Gurhachan Singh Talib was a prolific writer
both in English and Punjabi, though he knew Persian and Urdu
very well, too. Among his best-known books in Punjabi are:
Anapachhate Rah (1952); Adhunik Punjabi Sahit (Punjabi Kav) (1955);
Pavittar Jivan Kathavan (1971); Baba Shaikh Farid (1975),
and in English "Muslim League Attack on the Sikhs and Hindus in Punjab, 1947 (1950)";
The Impact of Guru Cobind Singh on Indian Society (1966), Guru Nanak: His Personality and Vision
(1969), Bhai Vir Singh: Life, Times and Works (1973); Baba Sheikh Farid (1974);
Guru Tegh Bahadur: Background and Supreme Sacrifice (1976) Japuji: The
immortal Prayer-chant (1977); and his classical translation in English
of the Adi Guru Granth (Four Volumes). Besides these books, he kept
an unending flow of articles and papers contributed to different journals.

Excerpts taken from these books. Encyclopedia of Sikhism by Harbans Singh ji.
Published by Punjabi university, Patiala